A nice thing to prepare for Class 1 is a Growth Chart poster. It will accompany your group’s journey through their school years and record the children’s progress in growing up.
This is how I went about it, as described in the free first chapter of A WALDORF DIARY:
In Britain, the academic year is divided into three terms: autumn, spring and summer, and so each child got six new marks on our chart every year – one per half term.
The class liked our recurring ritual of measuring. It took place after every holiday during a snack break. As I measured each child in turn, everyone else watched and commented with interest while eating.
The children often gathered before this poster to compare marks and point out observations. For these marks showed that not everyone grows at the same rate. And also that the same person grows by varying degrees: sometimes more, sometimes less.
And, inevitably, one’s personal growth rate was equated with achievement.
How to Make a Growth Chart
- Obtain a poster format of the toughest paper available.
- Use watercolour to paint a suitable background, for example a tree.
- Decide on an accessible permanent place on your classroom wall.
- Mount the chart so that its lower edge accommodates the smallest child’s first mark.
- Record the lower edge’s distance from the floor for future classroom moves.
- Work out how to fit all the members of your group into the poster’s width.
Marks will rise in columns of stacked lines. Leave room for children who may join the class in later years. When someone leaves, their column space can be given to the next child that joins.
How to Use the Growth Chart
Measure each child after every holiday. Snack breaks work well for this.
- Remind them to remove their indoor shoes.
- Let them stand up straight, heels touching the skirting board.
- Rest a spirit level, long enough to reach the chart, on their head.
- This ensures an accurate reading as you make a faint pencil mark.
- Write the child’s name below their first mark.
- Strengthen these marks later with a coloured ink pen and a ruler.
- Use a different colour for each school year.
- This poster can be extended with a blue sky when the time comes.
Growth Chart Data for Lessons
In Class 6, a growth chart’s wealth of measurements can be used for the teaching of mean, median and mode. Because it is personally relevant, this data will engage the interest of 11 to 12-year-olds.
Such a growth chart also records the biological fact that girls have their growth spurt of puberty much sooner than boys. This too will be of interest to the children in their Middle School years.
The following excerpt of a lesson with Class 6 is an example of A WALDORF DIARY‘s content:
Human Growth Facts
Have you ever wondered how tall you are going to be as an adult? … Naturally, yes!
Imagine, your bones already know! They are growing imperceptibly towards this goal, but their growth rate does not advance at a steady pace. Growth happens mostly at night, during deep sleep, when your mind is at rest.
We all experience two remarkable growth spurts, and both occur in childhood.
First comes the rapid development that turns a baby into a toddler. This is the body’s greatest increase in height in its lifetime. The second spurt happens at the onset of puberty, when the body prepares for sexual maturity and adulthood.
Paediatricians (medical doctors for children) have worked out charts to visualise average growth rates from year to year. These charts also show that girls and boys do not grow at the same rate:
The Biological Difference
At your age there is a remarkable difference in the growth rate of boys and girls. You already noticed this, and commented on it – and yes, it’s a biological fact.
Around age ten, girls begin to grow more quickly. We can see it very well on our own growth chart. Their growth rate peaks during Class 6, and by age fifteen most girls have reached their adult height.
The blue curve shows that a boy’s body remains childlike for longer. The male growth spurt begins about two years later; but during Class 8, you boys may add as much as three inches to your height.
Note: This topic is profoundly interesting to all. The relief of short boys is great. But so is the dismay of the smallest girl upon realising that she has nearly reached her final height.
Look at our Upper School students: The girls have completed their growing and are young women. If you meet them later in life, as mature adults, you will recognise them easily. Not so the boys! As grown men, our former students will be much harder to identify.
And why? Because their faces and bodies continue to develop up to the age of about thirty.
The body’s final size depends on heredity: on the genes that determine growth patterns in families. Tall parents usually have tall offspring, whereas children of short parents rarely grow up a lot taller.
Sleeping eight hours a night plays an important part, and healthy food at regular intervals helps the body to grow well. Malnutrition (a severe lack of food) will stunt growth. Certain medical conditions affect growth rates through an imbalance of hormones, and strong medication may do the same.
Now back to our first question: How tall are you going to be?
There are several ways of working out our adult height. None are entirely accurate, but they give a good estimate. Exceptions of up to plus/minus four inches occur, confirming the rule.
The simplest method is to double the size of a boy at age two, and of a girl at age one-and-a-half.
Another estimate is based on the height of both parents: Add the adult height of your parents and divide it by 2. From this average, a girl subtracts 2.5 inches, whereas a boy may expect to grow about 2.5 inches taller.
Well – can you guess what your homework will be?
Comments are welcome, so don’t hesitate to share experiences, questions and feedback below.
This guide assists class teachers and home educators with editable daily lesson plans, presentation notes, mentoring comments and examples of work. Its chapters are currently being formatted for digital publication and released in turn. To be notified of such releases, subscribe here:
Check the progress of publication at the schedule, read testimonials and download your free chapter. For prices and details of available chapters, visit the shop page:
Follow A WALDORF DIARY‘s Facebook page for exclusive updates.
